Surface water board sports, including surfing, stand-up and prone paddle boarding, and bodyboarding, a sport popularized by surfing enthusiast Tom Morey in the early 1970s when he invented the modern “boogie” bodyboard, have experienced regular and significant increases in participation in the U.S. in recent years. According to the Outdoor Foundation, the leading nonprofit trade organization for the outdoor recreation industry, surface water board sports are among some of the industry's fastest growing markets in the country.
Nearly half of all Americans participated in at least one outdoor activity in 2014: 142 million participants, on a collective 11.8 billion outdoor outings. Of these, stand-up paddle boarding continues to experience the highest year-over-year participation growth, at 38% in the past year, with more than fifty percent of all first time outdoor recreation participants trying stand-up paddle boarding for the first time.
Where surfboards and stand-up paddleboards require users to have the strength, coordination and balance to stand fully erect while riding, bodyboards allow users to ride prone, or on one knee (“drop knee”), allowing for a far broader range of user skill and age levels. And, because of its high degree of accessibility, bodyboarding has become a foundational gateway sport for stand-up paddle boarding and surfing. With a variety of price points and styles, bodyboards are widely available for the novice and the enthusiast alike, and with the short learning curve, bodyboarding has experienced a greater adoption rate among younger participants than the other respective board sport.
Because of the vast range of skills and ages of users in surface water board sports, especially for the young users with limited or undeveloped attention spans, boredom can quickly set-in with routine and regular use. Additionally, for older riders of stand-up and prone paddleboards and surfboards, especially those operated in deeper offshore waters, the dangers of aggressive sea life beneath them can go unnoticed, leading to treacherous results.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a water window apparatus that extends the playablity, interest and safety of the average surface water sports board.